Why employers should support safe cannabis use

As marijuana has become legal in states across the U.S., many employers have attempted to stay out of conversations around weed at work. Yet with cannabis use at record highs, employers will need to contemplate what this means for their workforce.  

Ninety-four percent of U.S. adults live in a state where medical cannabis is legal, according to cannabis industry insight platform New Frontier Data, and more than half live in a state where both medical and recreational use is legal. Those recreational activities are overlapping with professional life: over 1 in 5 employees say that they have used marijuana during work hours,  and over 13% of people say that they use marijuana at work more than once a month, according to data from American Addiction Centers. 

"What employers are struggling with most is that they know there is potential benefit and potential risk that's not going away," says Dr. Brooke Worster, medical care advisor at EO Care, a clinically guided cannabis health and wellness solution for employers. "There is also still a federal line in the sand, so employers are asking themselves, how do we sit in both worlds of giving guidance but also making sure our I's are dotted and T's are crossed." 

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While the recreational use of cannabis has been legalized in 23 states, three U.S. territories and D.C., as well as decriminalized in another eight states, there is still confusion around legality, as well as stigma in addressing usage in the workplace. Yet the right programs can actually support and protect employees using cannabis.  

"There is also so much confusion around what cannabis even is," says Dr. Worster. "There are so many pitfalls in terms of how to safely access it or even understand what it is that the general person is interested but often clueless. We have this ability to provide guidance and knowledge instead of putting our heads in the sand here and not talk about it." 

While cannabis management or guidance programs are still often overlooked by workplaces in fear of the potential consequences both in employees' personal and professional lives, education doesn't equal advocacy, says EO Care's vice president of employer solutions, Brent Bannerman.

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"Supporting the proper clinical guided use or non-use of cannabis does not necessarily mean you're advocating cannabis use," he says. "There's still a significant number of companies using smoking cessation programs and yet there are fewer smokers than there are cannabis users in the workforce today. It's about rethinking how we can best help our employees and reach the significant amount of the population who just really need and deserve the guidance."

The largest portion of that demographic are employees who may have been prescribed medicinal marijuana — a derivative of cannabis that is often used to ease pain, anxiety or symptoms caused by certain medical conditions such as cancer or Alzheimer's. Employees may  be struggling with how to explain their treatment plan to employers.

"Of the billions of dollars spent on cannabis in the United States, we expect that about a third of that is spent on purely medicinal purposes," Bannerman says. "And so we're trying to fill the void for the employers and say your people are using this and they need the same guidance you would give them on other substance-related questions."

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Beyond medicinal use, there are also employees who may be using the drug recreationally and responsibly, but are afraid randomized drug tests could land them in trouble. Some employees may also be looking to lower their marijuana intake that may have spiked during the pandemic, or are  considering cessation but don't want to be judged — or fired — for seeking help. 

Programs like EO Care provide employees with guidelines and boundaries supported by clinicians on how to responsibly engage with whatever cannabis product an employee may be using — both recreationally and medically — in a healthy way, as well as access to a full-time clinical team should an employee have more serious questions or if they want to start the path of cessation. Dr. Worster encourages employers to approach cannabis use the same way they've addressed other health and wellness initiatives in the workplace, and to educate themselves on use to avoid taboos.  

"There's a difference between using cannabis and being impaired at on the job," says Dr. Worster. "Employers have done it with other controlled substances in the past, it's not impossible to do with cannabis."